


Fair Summer

by allies_person



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Physical Disability, Racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 15:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allies_person/pseuds/allies_person
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every night the boy rides the ferris wheel alone--until one day he talks to the girl who works there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fair Summer

Every night, the boy from the baked goods stand came to the Ferris wheel. Every night, he smiled at her as he handed her four tickets for the ride. And every night, she didn’t quite know what to say when faced with his easy grin and blue eyes.

One night she blurted out as he was leaving, “Why do you come here every night?”

In the dim lights of the fair, she thought she could see his cheeks flush. But when he spoke, the answer came out smoothly. “I like to look at all of the lights,” he said. “It’s amazing what you can see from that vantage point. All the lights of the fair swirl together to form the most beautiful patterns.”

This was her third summer tending to the Ferris wheel at the Panem county fair, but she hadn’t ever thought about that before. She was too preoccupied with life on the ground to think of what things looked like up in the air.

The boy, taking her question as an invitation for further conversation, continued to speak. “I feel like we should know each other’s names by now. I’m Peeta Mellark, from the bakery stand.”

“Katniss Everdeen,” she found herself saying.

He smiled again. “Well, Katniss Everdeen,” he said. “I’ll be seeing you around.”

\--

After that night, Peeta Mellark began to give her a package of cookies every night, after he rode the Ferris wheel alone. He said they were leftovers that nobody would buy, but Katniss had her suspicions. When she tried to give the cookies back, though, he wouldn’t take them.

One night, when it was very late and the fair was virtually empty except for the employees, Peeta asked her if she would ride the Ferris wheel with him. He looked at his feet while he asked.

Katniss thought she ought to say no, but somehow she ended up saying yes. Her co-worker Thom could operate the wheel alone for a few turns.

When they reached the car, Peeta gestured to her to get in first. She noticed he struggled slightly getting himself into the car, as he always did. She hadn’t, however, before seen that his left foot was made out of metal. She tried to mask her surprise.

As they rode the wheel, he talked to her. Katniss wasn’t much of a talker, usually, but Peeta was easy to talk to. He asked her questions about her family, her favorite color, and what she liked to do. She found out that he was the youngest of three brothers and that his family owned a bakery. He was home from college for the summer and had been tasked with selling baked goods at the fair. He majored in business and minored in art.

When they reached the top of the wheel, he held out his hand. She took it.

\--

As if by some unspoken agreement, they grew into a routine. Every night Peeta would come and ride the Ferris wheel with her. Thom, winking, operated the wheel. Their hands and lips eventually found each other on those nights on the wheel together.

Although they talked at length, Katniss couldn’t help but notice that there were some things which Peeta never mentioned—his parents and his leg, most noticeably. She supposed that he, in turn, noticed that she never talked about her own parents—only her sister, Primrose. 

One day Peeta said, “It would be good if we could, you know, meet outside of work.”

Katniss’ heart quickened. “You mean, a date?”

“Yes.”

\--

They had a first date, then a second and a third. Peeta began to talk about meeting each other’s families. She hemmed and hawed at that, but agreed to stop by his family’s bakery one weekend while he was working there.

When she entered Mellarks’ Bakery, Peeta was tending to the cash register. His face broke out into a huge smile when he saw her. “Hey,” he said. “Let’s get you something to eat, on the house.”

Katniss wasn’t entirely comfortable with this arrangement, but she didn’t want to argue with him. She selected a biscuit with cheese filling which ended up being scrumptious.

He took her into the back kitchen, where he introduced her to his father and one of his brothers—both stocky, smiling blond men easily recognizable as related to Peeta. 

“So this is the girl that Peet’s been talking about all summer,” his brother Ryan said with a smirk.

Katniss felt her cheeks heat up. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ryan said. “Practically all he’s talked about all summer was you and how wonderful and smart and beautiful you are. I was kind of expecting you to walk on water.”

“Shut up, Rye,” Peeta mumbled, his own cheeks pink.

“Oh, no. I think Katniss and I have a lot of catching up to do. Does she know about that time when I tricked you into going to school with underwear on the outside of your pants?”

“Rye, please…”

But the brothers’ good-natured banter came to an abrupt halt as a woman walked in just then, heels clicking. She was thin, blonde, and wore a pinched expression that seemed permanently etched onto her face. “Who is this?” she asked coldly.

As the woman who must be Peeta’s mother stared at her, Katniss felt her stomach somersault. Katniss could practically feel the disapproval emanate from the woman. She wished she had worn something nicer than her worn jeans and T-shirt, though her wardrobe didn’t have much else.

Next to her, Peeta straightened his posture. “This is Katniss Everdeen, Mother. Remember, I told you about her.”

“Yes,” the woman sniffed. “You did. But I would have thought that even you knew better than to cavort with such wetback trash. I know you’re crippled, Peeta, but surely even you can do better than that.”

Katniss didn’t wait to hear the rest of Mrs. Mellark’s commentary. She bolted out of the kitchen and bakery as fast as she could. 

She was halfway down the street before she realized that Peeta was yelling, pleading with her. “Katniss, please—wait—I can’t keep up with you…”

But Mrs. Mellark’s words echoed in her mind, and she didn’t stop running.

\--

The next week at the fair, Peeta didn’t come to the Ferris wheel. Katniss knew he was probably at the baked goods stand, like he was almost every other day, but she didn’t have the guts to go and seek him out. Nor did she the next day, or the day after that.

On the fourth day, Katniss forced herself to make the short walk to Peeta’s stand before she could cower out of it. 

“Hi,” she mumbled when she got there.

“Hi,” he replied. He didn’t look at her when he talked. 

“I’m, uh, sorry that I ran out without an explanation,” she said.

“I’m sorry that I put you in that situation without any kind of warning,” he said. “My mother is…well, you saw. I should have known something like that would happen and prevented it, or at least warned you. But I do care about you. A whole lot. Do you think maybe we could try this again?”

Katniss thought of his mother, of the expression on her face as she scrutinized Katniss’ worn clothes and dark olive skin. She thought of her own mother after her father’s death, despondent. She had sworn to herself that she would never let herself be so weak, so dependent on somebody else. But she also remembered the way Peeta’s lips felt up against her own, of his steady hands and broad chest and the way he always—or almost always—had a funny remark for the occasion. She looked at him now, his blue eyes full of pain and hope.

“I’d like to try again,” she said. “But I think maybe we need to be more honest with each other.”

“I think that’s probably a good idea.”

Katniss looked at her watch and realized that she needed to get back to her shift. “I have to go now, but come again to the wheel tonight?”

This time, he looked right at her when he responded. “Always.”


End file.
